06:55 CNS Vigilant, Shuttle Hangar 4P

The shuttle was flying through the void towards the massive carrier. The pilots made a course correction once docking clearance from the CNS Vigilant had been received. As the shuttle rolled slightly over and dipped down towards the target the full splendor of the carrier came into sight through the window next to John’s seat.

“Jesus that’s a big ship,” John said to himself.

The Miller class carrier was the newest one to the Confederate Navy. John chuckled at how the silhouette of the ship resembled a super star destroyer from a popular science fiction series from centuries ago. The Vigilant was damn near fresh from the shipyards. She hadn’t even left the Sol system yet. But she was loaded to bear against her enemies.

The shuttle sped towards one of her hangar bays. It slowed down rapidly and spun about as it crossed the energy shield holding the vacuum within the bay. The rear door and walkway opened and extended almost at the same time as the landing pads touched down. Four guards quickly got up and walked down the walkway while General Mizrahi followed shortly behind them. John was pulling up the rear, being the last off the shuttle besides the pilots.

The general and his entourage were speaking with some officers that had met them in the bay. When John stepped off the walkway onto the bay’s floor he stopped and looked around. It was bustling with work. Bordering on frantic levels he thought.

“Lieutenant, come over here,” General Mizrahi said to John.

John turned and walked over to the men. He immediately saluted when stopped near them. A commander gave him a curt nod and saluted back. If John had read the body language correctly this man thought little of John.

“This is Captain Amy Ward. She’s been the liaison to Naval Intelligence over this Dr. Norman nonsense. She’ll be coordinating our ground teams during the attack,” General Mizrahi chuckled, “And she doesn’t think your necessary for this mission.”

John shrugged, “She may be right, but since I’m here I may as well help where and when I can.”

“Since you’re here I’ll add one more piece onto the chessboard. Sir, what are your orders? I’m heading to the bridge and will relay them to Admiral Nelson.”

“I’d like for the admiral to speed up our resupply. I want us moving as soon as possible.”

Captain Ward nodded, “I will see if I can urge the Navy to hurry its pace.”

The marine captain saluted then walked briskly to the exit. General Mizrahi gestured to a corporal then turned to face John. He was grinning.

“Charming gal, isn’t she?”

“Oh, very sir,” John answered the question with a tinge of sarcasm.

“Would you like to know what she thought about my field promotion for you?”

John grinned, “I can imagine she, like most marines, wouldn’t be happy to find out about that.”

“I’m sure you’ll find an appropriate way to work past that. The corporal here will take you to your room. You’ll need to go on duty at 12:00 to meet your fireteam. At 14:00 I want you at a briefing to discuss our intel,” Mizrahi handed john a large data slate, “Get yourself acquainted with the information in this.”

John saluted the general before he walked away. A petite corporal stepped up to him and saluted him. John smiled; it was weird being saluted since he wasn’t technically a commissioned officer yet. He saluted back.

“Sir, I’m Corporal Jennings. Please follow me,” she gestured to the exit on the port side of the hangar, “We’re moving your power armor to the marine barracks that you were assigned to. We’ve also stocked your room with the appropriate clothing.”

“Please, lead on corporal. I’ll be honest, I haven’t even bothered to look at the deck schematics of this big bastard.”

“It isn’t as bad as you may think sir. It’s laid out pretty well I think.”

The two walked down the corridors, with John a step behind the corporal. She was oddly enthusiastic about the mission, though John strongly suspected that she wanted to see action. That was typical marine thinking. John chuckled at that, he wasn’t much different from them.

“Sir, do you mind me asking an odd question?”

“Fire away corporal.”

“Why did we need to get you fatigues and uniforms. Shouldn’t you have brought them with you?”

“I got transferred here at the last second. Plus, they aren’t the right color.”

“Wait, not the right color. Are you not a marine?”

John laughed, “Hell corporal, I haven’t even finished the academy yet. On track to wrap that up in May though.”

“You are going to piss off a lot of people if you wear those, sir.”

“I’m sure I will. But orders are orders. Neither of us gets to pick and choose the orders we ignore.”

“I didn’t know you wanted to get beat up, sir,” she grinned as she pressed a button to open the door, “Here are your quarters. You can use the panels to help you guide you to your location if you get lost.”

“Thank you, corporal, don’t work too hard,” John smiled as he walked into the room.

He slid his shoes off and walked over to the clock. He set the alarm for 10:00. That would be enough sleep to get things going. He’d be able to read the data slate, familiarize himself with the ship and hopefully get some chow before the work started.

12:05 Marine Barracks – Bravo Team

Despite going over the schematics of the ship, he still got turned around and showed up fashionably late. The cheesy enchiladas were also giving him some fierce gas. Though the infantile part of him enjoyed crop-dusting unsuspecting people in the corridors with rancid gas.

John walked into the barracks and headed towards the training ring at the back of the large open space. Two men were in their suits working on some grappling techniques. Several others were cleaning their rifles. One of them noticed John walk toward them and alerted one of the ranking members with a hit to their shoulder.

The man turned and met John near the rifle stations, “Sir, how can we help you?”

“Is this fireteam bravo?”

“Yes sir, that must make you our new boss. I’m Staff Sergeant Justin Aakre.”

“Lieutenant John Lief, pleased to meet you. And yes, I’ll be your CO for this mission.”

The men stopped cleaning their rifles, stood, and saluted John. John did so back and ordered them to continue as they were. He could tell the sergeant wanted to say something.

“Sarge, in a public setting with other officers you are to adhere to the norms of saluting and all that bullshit. In here though, speak to me plainly.”

“Thank you, sir. We don’t much care for you wearing our uniform. It is frankly disgraceful.”

John smiled, “Good, we’re in agreement then. But I don’t get a choice whether or not I should follow orders. Even when the orders may not make a damned bit of sense.”

“Sarge is that our new CO?” one of the men in the power armor shouted over at them.

“I’m pretty sure we can work with that, but you’re not going to make any friends looking like that,” Justin turned and hollered over at his squadmate, “Yes, I’ll introduce you to him.”

John and Justin walked over to the ring. The rest of the squad stopped what they were doing and joined them. Introductions were made, and as Justin predicted the team was not happy. They, unlike their sergeant, didn’t voice it in as many words but their body language was plain to John.

“Corporal Bennet, you seem agitated.”

“I am sir.”

“How are you going to be not agitated anymore?” John asked dryly to the light chuckling within the crowd of marines.

“One punch sir,” Bennet grinned as he made a fist in his power armor.

“Bennet, are you a fucking idiot? We don’t need any fratricide on board, much less killing our commanding officer.”

John chuckled. It was an unexpected opportunity though. He could use this as a way of garnering the team's respect despite the risk to himself.

“You’re on Bennet. If you can land a punch on me, you get your satisfaction. If I drop you to the ground then this uniform business is put to bed,” John looked back at Justin, “This is on me, not him or any of you. Y’all are in the clear on this.”

Bennet tossed his helmet to a private on the squad. John shook his head and motioned to the private. They threw it back at him.

“Helmets on, don’t be a fucking idiot,” John ordered as he jumped the fence.

All of the marines crowded the ring. Charlie team saw the commotion and drifted over to see what was happening. Alpha and Delta teams followed suit. Not a single soul around the barracks thought the unarmored man stood a chance. Nor did a single soul catch General Mizrahi or Colonel Peretz walk in, though the two senior officers watched on with equal attention as the rowdy marines.

“You sure about this sir?” Bennet asked one last time, “You are going to get hurt.”

“Stop being a pussy and come after me,” John answered immediately.

Bennet wasted no time and shot forward. He planted his left foot into the ground and began throwing a haymaker with his right hand. He telegraphed the attack so obviously that a blind squirrel in Minnesota could see it.

With preternatural grace and deftness, John avoided the punch, grabbed onto Bennet’s outstretched arm, and spun him off the ground and over the power armor. John rolled in the air and landed softly on his feet directly behind Bennet. He wrapped his arms around the midsection of the armor.

John couldn’t clasp his hands on the other side, but he could grab hold of the breastplate. He pulled Bennet up and off the ring’s surface as he shouted out a warcry. John had just enough clearance to spin him in the air and slammed him to the ground. John let go of his hands at the last moment and rolled off Bennet’s back.

Whatever hostility the Marines may have held for John was largely gone. Most of the female members of the other teams looked on at the testosterone-filled spectacle with some derision, but even for them, it was hard not to respect an officer that stepped into the ring like that. The uniform issue had been settled for the moment, but that was the least of their concerns.

Colonel Peretz whistled loudly causing everyone in the room to turn and stand at attention. John helped Bennet right himself, doing so in power armor could be awkward under the best of times. Mizrahi still appeared to be enjoying the show, but Peretz looked like fury incarnate.

“Lief, Aakre, Bennet. Front and center NOW!” he shouted.

The three men hurried through the crowd of marines and stood at attention in front of the angry colonel. Peretz paced back and forth in front of them for an uncomfortable amount of time. Then he spoke up.

“I want to know why an officer would willingly step into the ring with another in power armor. You seem to be one of the brightest Lief, but that was really fucking dumb.”

“Sir, I disagree. It was a calculated action to resolve the uniform issue. I believe it has been settled satisfactorily. Additionally, my risk calculus led me to believe that Bennet wouldn’t hurt me.”

“Alpha, Charlie, and Delta squads get back to business now,” Peretz commanded, “Aakre, why the hell didn’t you stop this farce?”

“Sir…”

John interrupted him, “Sir, it was under my order that I allowed this to happen. If anyone is to be held accountable for this, it is I alone.”

Peretz wanted to say more but then the gravelly voice of Mizrahi broke through, “Colonel, I suspect in the end things worked out. Aakre, I don’t suspect we’re going to have any issues with working with the young lieutenant?”

“Sir, certainly not anymore.”

“Get back to work all of you. Lief, you are needed at the briefing a bit earlier than expected. Developments have come up.”

John shrugged, “They always do with his whack job, sir.”

“Lieutenant, I apologize for the frosty reception. It won’t happen anymore,” Sergeant Aakre said.

“Water under the bridge Aakre. Keep at it,” John nodded and followed the two senior officers out of the barracks.

As they neared the exit Mizrahi smiled and turned to face the colonel, “I believe I owe you a bottle of your choice.”

The colonel smiled, completely betraying the look of rage from mere moments ago, “Thank you, sir, I was confident that young Lief would figure things out. How about an aged rum? Your choice is fine with me.”

John joined in the conversation, “Jesus, I thought you were going to airlock the three of us. That was an impressive act.”

General Mizrahi began to laugh as the colonel turned to face John, the angry look was back on his face, “Who said it was an acting lieutenant? I appreciate your willingness to ingratiate yourself with the men, but if you do something that idiotic again, I’m going to end this charade.”

“Less risk John. But good work. I should have presumed you’d find an unorthodox way to break through with them.”

John laughed, “With aggressive groups, the best way in is to pick a fight. Win or lose respect is earned. And I wasn’t joking sirs, Bennet stood no chance.”

The colonel shook his head as the trio left the barracks. Unlike John, the two officers knew exactly where they were going. A short while later they arrived at the central command center for ground forces.

12:35 Marine Boardroom 1A

A combination of Marine and Naval personnel could be seen working diligently on things from the boardroom. Inside the boardroom were several analysts sharing the newest developments that they had uncovered. John was bored out of his mind, but he was keeping himself occupied by reviewing intercepts that Naval Intelligence acquired between the ruling committee of the Mercantilist Union and Dr. Norman’s organization.

As Captain Ward droned on in the background John was skimming over one that was intercepted about eighteen months ago. He was pouring over the document. Colonel Peretz noticed this and interrupted the briefing.

“Lieutenant, did you find something?”

John looked up from the data slate, “I think we’re wrong with his intentions here. He was strongly reprimanded by the central committee. It looks like five or six members recommended the dissolution of his organization and his immediate execution for genetic crimes.”

General Mizrahi leaned into the table, “Why would the central committee do that?”

“Dr. Norman is one of their leading R&D scientists for the military. His official charter is to develop advances for the military. But his only true focus is on genetics. Only a small part of his organization actually works to make those improvements, most of it is dedicated to genetics.”

Special Investigator Lacey Prydz spoke up, “And you know this how?”

“Because he worked for the Confederacy once. His experiments created my grandparents. And the crazy asshole has spoken to me several times. He was very clear that his end goal is uplifting the human species. And I’m key to those insane plans.”

Lacey appeared to suck on a lemon and didn’t speak. She was busy cross-referencing things at her terminal. General Mizrahi and Peretz whispered to one another.

“Let’s presume you are correct, why is there a research facility in our space?” Captain Ward asked.

“Simple, his compulsion to continue his research means he has to have it someplace. The union doesn’t share a border with the Alliance so his choices are limited where he can place it. Union space butts up against our territories near where this base is. North of that there’s an unsettled and lawless zone between the three powers. Right now, it’s a hot zone of piracy.”

“Please continue with your justification lieutenant,” Mizrahi asked.

“It's not going to be weapons or something their military could use. That'd be too risky to be done outside of Union space. He moved a portion of his genetics wing to BFE within our space. It’s a smart plan, the military would be slow to investigate or act on something this far out. Thankfully, well for us not the poor saps on the colony, his vile character escalated things, and the colony began asking questions.”

Lacey spoke up, “Twelve months ago Dr. Norman was sanctioned when he sent their army one thousand shock troops. The army reluctantly accepted the troops but had to keep this battalion separate from the rest as they were little more than human robots.”

“Explain,” Mizrahi commanded.

“Presumably, they had no free will. They were failed clones. They operated with no sense of fear or care for one’s wellbeing. They were an incredibly useful force within the military. Their presence on the battlefield upset the standard military. We believe they were all killed attacking a pirate base in the Corvinus system.”

Mizrahi stood up and walked over to the main screen halfway down the wall and began to look at the research facility on the map. To John, he was clearly forming a plan to assault it. One of the first things John did when he looked at the map was to create a plan of attack.

“We’ll drop out of slip space outside of the colony’s detection range. We'll use two troop transports and fighter escorts will then jump near the planet. From there the transports will land in this field and press the attack.”

“With respect sir, I wouldn’t recommend we do that. Our drop troops would be vulnerable to a counterattack, or they would just cut bait and run.”

Mizrahi smiled then turned around, “What’s your plan lieutenant?”

“Send a message on open channels that the military is delivering spare goods and food. We use a cargo lander to transport Charlie and Delta squads to the surface. Alpha and Bravo squads will be in shuttles. Additional shuttles will be sent to the colony to ferry those squads to the base. The key thing here is we need the local air force to begin an attack about ten minutes before we get to the base. Our fighter escort will lead them in the attack.”

“Lacey, what is the time it would take a shuttle to go from the outpost to the research facility?”

“Ten minutes.”

“Lief, I want you to work with the strategists here to refine your plan. I expect a detailed plan on my desk by 14:00.”

“Understood sir, I’ll get right on that.”

John stood up and left the room and headed directly to the strategists outside of the board room. Several others left at that moment. All that remained were Prydz, Peretz, Mizrahi, and Admiral Nelson. The Naval Intelligence Investigator clearly wanted to get something off her chest.

“What’s on your mind investigator,” Mizrahi said as he crossed his arms.

“I don’t trust this faux lieutenant. He’s a liability.”

Peretz shook his head, “Intelligence has a bad habit of discarding those that they no longer deem useful to him. Your decision to cast this one out has already proven short-sided.”

“He’s wearing your bloody uniform! He got members of my organization killed.”

“The issue with wearing our uniform is known and understood to be a necessary evil. That young man is dutifully following my orders. As for the protection team, there wasn’t much he could do to protect your team. The attack knocked him out for a moment, and your people weren’t equipped with any anti-armor weaponry. Curious that John was the only one that was prepared for that eventuality,” Mizrahi spoke in a disappointed tone.

“His firsthand knowledge with this crackpot has already born fruit. I should remind you that none of yours came up with that connection or the presumption that this is a bio-lab of some sort,” Peretz added.

Lacey shook her head, “Once again, he should not be trusted with the mission. He will endanger it by being involved with it.”

“Your concerns have been voiced and registered. Lief will continue with his duties until such a time that I or Colonel Peretz believe he is incapable of doing so.”

Lacey nodded and stood up to leave the room. There was nothing more she could do to convince them otherwise. The admiral, who had said nothing up to that point, stood up and looked through the window to observe John. He began speaking after Lacey had left the room.

“Uri, you and I go back a long way. You know damn well that he isn't a risk to this mission. Why tolerate this song and dance?” Admiral William Nelson said.

“Because I must play the political game with Intelligence. I gave my word to that boy that I would involve him in attacking this madman. He may be a bit rough around the edges, but his history with this enemy organization makes him critical to our success.”

“I'm well aware of this shitstorm this one has created around him,” Admiral Nelson said, “I’m clearly not in the crowd that wants him dead or gone. Unlike the entirety of Third Fleet. Truth be told I rather like the fresh perspective he brings, but he’s a wild card at the same time.”

“Lief is a singularly unique and polarizing cadet," Mizrahi was smiling, "You've read his file. He is without a doubt the most ruthless and vicious sonofabitch I have ever come across. But he’s shown a willingness to work with people he doesn’t like and even elevate their status in doing so,” Mizrahi sighed and walked over to the table.

“First Fleet is playing both sides. They still want the upper class and children of the elite like Vernon or his wife to continue to enroll. Parroting Lief around to show to the masses that commoners can rise up and achieve greatness is useful as well. They, unlike the other fleets, are playing the political game splendidly," Colonel Peretz said.

Admiral Nelson smiled, “No Isaac, First Fleet isn’t the one playing a splendid game. I get the distinct feeling that Lief's fish out of water routine is just an act, he's three steps ahead of everyone else.”